Album Review (Jazz): AFRIKA LOVE (Alchemy Sound Project)

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by Tony Frankel on May 29, 2021

in CD-DVD,Music

A JUICY JOURNEY IN JAZZ

How awesome is this?! To me, this is what fusion really means: Afrika Love, the sonically adventurous third album by Alchemy Sound Project — which formed in 2014 — takes many different styles of music and melds them together in a jazzy, grooving, funkalicious delight. I get Carl Stalling (composer of Looney Tunes cartoons), New Music composer Louis Andriessen (especially his De Materie), Ellington Big Band, Film Noir, heaping scoops of Modern Jazz, New World, and so much more. And since there are only five members, an incredible showoff of breakout solos. Yet their sound is never, ever derivative, and best of all, never ever grating, as fusion can sometimes be. Turns out each of the five tracks was composed by each musician — all of whom are bandleaders themselvesĀ  — pianist Sumi Tonooka, woodwind players Salim Washington and Erica Lindsay, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, and bassist David Arend — and for this album Jonathan Blake (drums, percussion) and Michael Spearman (trombone). The folks in this chamber-jazz outfit also happen to be comprised of both sexes who are also multi-racial and multi-generational. After such a tumultuous year, Alchemy Sound Project proves that we all can get along and create something new at the same time.

album art Peggy Gyulai

Alchemy Sound Project
Afrika Love
Artists Recording Collective | released May 14, 2021 | 5 tracks | 41:05
available at Amazon or Alchemy Sound Project

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